This CPA is dedicated to helping the non-profit sector

As Canada continues its gradual post-pandemic recovery, the non-profit sector has faced profound challenges in adapting to new global realities. Rising income inequality and sky-high inflation, coupled with growing housing unaffordability, are driving unprecedented demand for services provided by Canada’s approximately 170,000 non-profits and registered charities.  

According to CanadaHelps, one-in-five Canadians are turning to charitable organizations for essential supports and nearly 60 per cent of charities are struggling to cope with the demand. This dire need comes at a time when donations are dwindling: the number of Canadians making charitable donations had decreased for 11 years in a row by the time of the first year of the pandemic, falling to 17.7 per cent in 2021 from 23.4 per cent in 2010. In the face of these challenges, the non-profit sector is going through a major upheaval, aiming to adopt innovative strategies and harness technologies like AI in its efforts to optimize limited resources and maximize its reach for people in need. That’s where Betty Ferreira comes in.  

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As the founder of ReStructure Consulting, a Toronto-based management consulting firm that provides strategic and financial guidance to organizations dedicated to serving communities, Ferreira leans on decades of experience in supporting the non-profit sector, fuelled by a passion that began at the age of 10. “I was coming out onto the street after my father’s annual work Christmas brunch in downtown Toronto, and l saw a homeless person for the first time,” she recalls. “He was lying down in the fetal position on the cold, wet sidewalk, and I was shocked, frozen into place. All I wanted to know was who was going to help this man? Had someone called an ambulance  yet? Once my parents explained the realities of homelessness for many Canadians, I was shocked that the government couldn’t figure out a strategy to ensure no human ended up in that situation—completely alone and without any assistance.” 

That life-changing encounter inspired Ferreira to pursue a career in non-profits that started with volunteering as a young adult at Eva’s Place, an initiative aiming to open a shelter for homeless youth in the GTA. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in sociology, she joined Eva’s Place full-time, overseeing fundraising and organization for the opening of the shelter in 1994.  

“Through that experience, I realized the vital importance of finance to the resiliency of non-profits,” she says. “I also saw many other youth shelters were financially struggling and that had to do with limited financial acumen across the sector.” 

Ferreira encountered many of those challenges herself, particularly when she took on the role of interim executive director at Eva’s Place. “I sat in fear that the treasurer would ask me a question that I didn’t know how to answer,” she says. “I vowed to do something about that, and that’s where my focus on finance began. It started with strengthening my own knowledge and then it became my passion to help other non-profits.” 

After almost 10 years, Ferreira left Eva’s Place to seek other opportunities, before launching ReStructure Consulting in 2005. To further boost her skill set, she earned her CPA designation in 2013. With ReStructure, Ferreira has aided numerous charities, foundations, social enterprises and local government departments with her consulting, which relies on foresight methodologies that help clients create new leadership and financial strategies to prepare for the future (in recognition of her efforts in propelling non-profit finance, Ferreira received an FCPA in 2018).  

Ferreira’s biggest impact tends to be in transforming and broadening the attitudes of leaders and staff within non-profit organizations. Key to this process is enabling the acceptance of the need to change, through inclusivity and engagement. “You can’t lock a consultant in a room and ask them to develop a strategy that will be accepted by stakeholders in an organization without their input and their acceptance,” she says.

On several occasions, she has also pushed non-profit clients to break out of the stereotypical thinking that can often be found in the non-profit sector. “Some clients have the scarcity mindset when it comes to lack of funding, the belief that ‘this is the way it is in the non-profit sector,’” she says. “Now, while this is true, it is also not true! A scarcity mindset will always lead to an organization that has a perpetually weak business model—even when better outcomes are achievable.” 

In this unpredictable and rapidly evolving post-pandemic world, her work on these fronts is needed now more than ever. This is especially true in Canada, where non-profits generate approximately eight per cent of Canada’s GDP and employ 10.8 per cent of its full-time workforce. “Organizations must think in new ways, leverage new tools and methods, and manage new and unknown risks,” says Ferreira, who encourages clients to pursue innovative approaches like mergers or program co-delivery with similar organizations, fee-for-service models, or even enlisting the talents of AI and marketing specialists to boost fundraising efforts and service delivery.  

To help spread her message, Ferreira launched a second venture called Goodcasting in 2018, through which she provides speaking, training and consulting services for social purpose initiatives. Focused on running virtual finance bootcamps for non-profits and delivering keynote speeches to business and community leaders across the country, Ferreira knows her work is far from over. Thirty years after her Eva’s Place (now called Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth) shelter opened, demand for its services has unfortunately never been higher. The same holds true for many non-profits covering various human needs, like food, health and shelter, and more. And yet, Ferreira remains positive about the non-profit sector’s ability to adapt and thrive. “The pandemic has inspired non-profits to look to new ways to diversify revenue, to explore new business models,” she says. “The current energy around social finance and reimagining the traditional non-profit business model is inspiring and I’m proud to be part of the energy that has propelled this conversation forward.”